Trevor Prince presidential campaign, 2014
Trevor Prince, Presiding Senator of the Allied States Senate, from San Diego, California, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Allied States in January 2012. On April 21, 2012, the Democratic Liberty Party announced that for the time being, Prince is their nominee, however, since it is more than two years away from the election, the decision is subject to change. Prince, as per the DLP Charter, cannot be the official nominee until a decision is made at the Democratic National Convention in June 2014. Prince is the first under 30 president-nominee in the history of the Allied States as well as the United States. On April 22, 2012, the Prince campaign announced that conservative-Democratic Liberal Senator Ron Paul of Texas would be Prince's running mate. Ron Paul as running mate In the very early stages of Prince's campaign, he stated that he wanted a conservative running mate to "give the American public an executive leadership which truly represents all people, liberal or conservative." However, Prince stated that he will remain loyal to the party (it is not disallowed for a presidential candidate to have a running mate from an opposition party), and proceeded to choose Democratic Liberal Senator Ron Paul from Texas. Besides their views conflicting in basically every aspect of politics, Paul immediately accepted Prince's offer and has stated that he supports Prince's idea of a diversified executive. Speeches and events Announcement of candidacy (15 January 2012) Campaign positions States' rights While Paul, regularly basing his views off of the old US Constitution, supports states' rights, Prince has argued that a fully centralized government will increase the effectiveness of governing. A highly controversial point in the campaign policy, Prince hopes to federalize education completely by removing state departments of education, and later move on to corrections, agriculture and as stated at some point, federalizing law enforcement. Abortion Presiding Senator Prince is a strongly pro-choice activist and believes parents must decide on their own whether or not to have an abortion, moreover with the final decision being with the mother. In strong contrast to this, Senator Paul opposes abortion and has gone as far as to call himself "an unshakable foe of abortion." While Prince believes the federal government should pass legislation in favor of choice, Paul believes it is best handled at state level. Freedom of speech Both Senators Prince and Paul agree that free speech should be protect on as many fronts as possible. There is, however, one notable difference. Paul believes strongly in allowing citizens or anyone on Allied States land to be able to burn the American flag, while Prince believes, and has stated, that "the flag is only a symbol and a piece of material." He went on further to say that "we as Americans are much more than the red white and blue, and although we love our flag, we love our freedom to burn it and anything else for that matter, more." Internet Senator Paul strongly opposes the No Man's Land Act of 2012 and believes the government should have some jurisdiction on the internet. Senator Prince however, being the author of the Act, stands true on his belief that the internet "is a dimension on its own and needs to remain sovereign." Gun control Both Senators Prince and Paul oppose gun control legislation and have voted against bills in that regard. While Senator Paul strongly believes airline pilots should be armed, Senator Prince has stated that the air marshal program should rather be developed more. After stating that, he referred to some incidents where pilots become unstable during flight. Sexual harassment Another of a somewhat common ground between Prince and Paul. In Ron Paul's 1987 book, ''Freedom Under Siege, Paul expressed the view that those who experience sexual harassment in the work force should remedy the situation by quitting their jobs. He further argued that governmental oversight is warranted only where victims are physically forced into sexual actions. Prince shares this opinion, stating that "Although it is common for my liberal friends to go out of their way and defend women's rights, I cannot help but stress simply that life is complicated. I don't want to punish each and every dude who touches a hot chick's ass at work. If they feel violated, please, quit the job, embrace the situation, or ask the guy politely to stop. If he keeps on pestering you, you can bring a complaint to your company's disciplinary committee." Foreign intervention Paul's stance on foreign policy is one of consistent non-intervention, opposing wars of aggression and entangling alliances with other nations. Senator Prince, however, while still defending his arguments to decrease military spending and generally decrease the size of the military, supports "justified" invasions of foreign nations. Some notable justifications for an invasion have been extreme human rights abuses and warmongering. Conservative politicians have criticized Prince on this issue, sometimes basing it off of many of Prince's online accounts, under his username "Ultra Warmonger". Legalization of marijuana Both Prince and Paul support legalizing the medical and recreational use of marijuana on federal level. Prince, who has already tested positively numerous times of having used marijuana, stated, ironically while under the influence of cannabis that "Dude... I am like not gonna hurt anybody. If I ever make persidente sic, I'll make it legal to use this shit whenever someone wants to..." Prince later stated that he still supports that position, however, that, like with alcohol, there should be some restrictions on the use thereof. See also *Allied States presidential election, 2014 category:Allied States of America